Fringe: Curiosity Killed the Cat

Show of hands: who’s loving this season so far? It is a risky move to have the episodes alternate between the two universes, one that could alienate and confuse new viewers. But for those of us who have been with Fringe since the first season, this structure demonstrates that the creators are invested in their mythology and that Fringe is going to be anything but a run-of-the-mill procedural with a few monsters thrown in for kicks. By placing the two Olivias in opposite universes, it means that even a one-off episode that doesn’t appear to be directly tied to the greater mythology actually is because we have to constantly question the motivations and intentions of both Fauxlivia and Olivia and how they relate to this coming war. I love it. LOVE IT. But what do you think? Do you love it? Or are you having a confused?

A gentleman with a pickaxe is holding family hostage in their living room, while two of his friends dig a giant hole in their basement. Hey, thanks for the mess, guys. WORST HOME INVADERS EVER. ANYWAY, in this hole, the basement goons find a metal box which they apparently have been hired to retrieve. Their curiosity gets the best of them and they take a peek inside and suddenly it’s all Raiders of the Lost Ark up in here what with the electricity going out, and everyone bleeding from their ears and turning gray. EXCEPT for PickAxe. PickAxe runs downstairs, grabs the box and then high tails it out of the house, because he knows how this ends and is uninterested in his face melting off.

At the camera store, Jerry Jacks uses some newfangled doohickey to painlessly remove the tattoo from Fauxlivia’s neck, and thousands of regretful betramp-stamped thirty-five-year-olds let out small rueful sighs. Jerry Jacks and Fauxlivia discuss the files that he has given her on Bishop, Pacey, Bell, and AsteriskAstrid, and the Big Book O’ Pop Culture that he has given her so she can seemlessly slip into our world. Look out, Fauxlivia. Our pop culture is a ruthless seductress. One minute you’re all, “Oh I don’t watch television. I prefer to read the great tragedies in the original Greek.” And the next thing you know, you’ve got half of a Filet O’ Fish hanging out of your mouth while heatedly tweeting that if we’re going to give Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian their own reality show, Paris Hilton should certainly have one, too, and you’ll suddenly realize what you’re doing, and weep over the shreds of your college degree. It happens. ANYWAY, Fauxlivia confirms that Jerry Jacks sent a team to “the site” before asserting her authoritah over Jerry Jacks, reminding him that he works for her.

Pacey discusses the Bowflex of Doom with Col. Abaddon, and reminds us that he is the power source for whatever nefarious exercise plans Walternate intends to unleash on this universe. Bishop, however, is not interested in learning anything more about this mess of cables and weights, comparing it to the scare tactics the government used to push Oppenheimer into building them a nuclear bomb. Point taken.

Fauxlivia and Pacey go for a drink, where Fauxlivia encourages Pacey to continue researching the Bowflex of Doom. She then announces that she loves the Patsy Cline song “Crazy” (but who doesn’t) before making him get up and dance with her. Which Pacey thinks is weird. But not as weird as it was being Over There with that alternate version of Olivia with the red hair. That was super weird. OH, IRONY. And then Fauxlivia receives a phone call, so that ends that.

The team is called to the crime scene, where Bishop notes that the blood is slightly lighter in color than would be expected, and that the victims appear to have first been in a vegetative state before expiring. As for what they were digging up — whatever it was doesn’t appear to be around anymore, which means there must be a third dude running around out there with a ear bleeding machine.

Bishop performs a bit of a brainectomy on one of the victims while wearing suit and tie, and no. That doesn’t happen. But he’s wearing the suit and tie because he’s about to go over to Massive Dynamics for the reading of Bell’s will. There, Mrs. Roboto receives a brass bell in a box as a memento of her time spent with Bell in Tuscany, and Bishop receives a letter. The contents of which he chooses to not share with the assembled, including Pacey. But obviously it’s that Bell has left him Massive Dynamics, because, OBVIOUSLY. And then Col. Abaddon calls Pacey to find out if he and Fauxlivia are at PickAxe’s apartment yet, and Pacey’s like, Wha? And Col. Abaddon wonders that Fauxlivia didn’t call him, and they both have a hmmm.

Pacey heads to the aforementioned apartment, where Fauxlivia makes up some excuse for not calling him that he just accepts wholesale. She then steps outside and calls Jerry Jacks to give him the address and instructions to come back after the FBI is done. HOWEVER, watching all of this, and noticing her badge is PickAxe from his car. In which there is The Earbleeding Box.

Back at the lab, Bishop is distracted by Bell’s letter, which contains a safety deposit key and reads, “DON’T BE AFRAID TO CROSS THE LINE.” This he shows to AsteriskAstrid, but not his son, because he still feels guilty for doing just that — crossing the line — to save Pacey. Which is why he’s irritated with Bell’s last words to him: Bishop did cross the line, and look what happened. Nothing good. Aside from saving Pacey’s life. Which he still hasn’t really discussed with Pacey in any serious fashion. Right then, Pacey arrives and explains that he can’t find The Requiem, but will Figaro do? And Bishop has to explain to AsteriskAstrid that he believes that some sort of ultrasonic harmonic noise killed the victims by messing with their brain waves or something. This is based on Bishop looking at some of the victim’s Endolymph fluid, because, sure. Later, Bishop tries to deliver the whole “Why I Stole You From Another Universe” speech to Pacey, but Pacey’s not having it. KTHNXBAI.

Meanwhile, Fauxlivia has been brushing up on her Oliviaisms, watching videotapes of her, and realizes that Olivia has a photographic memory, which, SWELL. How’s she gonna fake that? There’s a knock at the door, and lo and behold, PickAxe is standing there with The Box. Fauxlivia brings him inside, where she realizes PickAxe is deaf, which explains why he didn’t die. Ah. Jerry Jacks soon arrives to collect The Box, and Fauxlivia promptly shoots poor PickAxe in the back of the head. He never heard saw it coming.

Inconveniently, Pacey arrives just then, and Fauxlivia is forced to drag poor PickAxe into the bathroom and shove her head under a faucet to make it look like she was in the shower. Once inside, Pacey whines at Fauxlivia about Bishop messing up that other universe and boo-hoo, I’m gonna be strapped into a Bowflex of Doom and possibly kill everyone I know and love and wah. Fauxlivia, however, spies PickAxe’s blood seeping out from underneath the bathroom door and decides that she must distract Pacey with sexytimes.

Jerry Jacks takes The Box to a subway platform where he leaves it with some fellow who he asks to watch it for him as he goes to the restroom. BUT, IT’S A TRAP! BECAUSE THERE ARE NO RESTROOMS IN THE SUBWAY!

And sure enough, Fauxlivia and Pacey’s gropeypants time is interrupted by phone calls from Col. Abaddon and AsteriskAstrid, to alert them to a situation in the subway. A bunch of passengers on the platform are unresponsive, but still alive (kinda), and the security camera picked up a man carrying some kind of box into the tunnels. Pacey volunteers to go in after it, and has Fauxlivia fire off her gun next to his head so as to temporarily deafen him, because apparently headphones won’t do the trick. Which I guess they learned that one time when that teenaged kid kidnapped Pacey. Or maybe because having Fauxlivia firing her weapon next to Pacey’s head is much sexier than having him wear some dopey headphones. ANYWAY. Pacey heads into the tunnel and discovers The Box is broken, so he’s going to have to try to disable it before he can reemerge with it. There’s some rote bomb-defusing tension, and then a train totally expectedly unexpectedly comes down the track, and Fauxlivia dashes into the tunnel and pulls Pacey to safety just in the nick of time.

Once out of the subway tunnels, they take a look at The Box, and Pacey confirms that it looks like other pieces of the Bowflex of Doom that he tinkered with while Over There. As to why Walternate has hidden pieces of it Over Here? Who can say. Mad scientists be mad.

Later, Bishop heads to the bank to retrieve Bell’s safety deposit box and then heads straight to Asterisk’sAstrid’s apartment to tell her that Bell left Massive Dynamics to him, which, DUH.

Fauxlivia then heads to the typewriter shop to alert Over There that Pacey has the first piece and is actively engaged. Over There is pleased and orders her to now work on Bishop. OH DEAR.

When I wrote last week’s recap, I hadn’t known that this episode was going to be entitled “The Box,” I swear. But I’m not surprised I spent so much time yammering about boxes last week. As I noted then, boxes are an ancient symbol that represent mystery, rebirth and, particularly fitting for this episode, death. The most famous “box” (which was actually a jar, but whatever) was Pandora’s. (Apologies to those of you familiar with my Lost recaps, as this will be painfully repetitive.) A refresher on that whole Pandora’s Box myth: Pandora was the first woman, created on Zeus’s command as a sort of practical joke on man. Pandora was given a box — actually a big jar that was usually used to store wine or grain or bodies — that she was specifically instructed NOT TO OPEN. NO, SRSLY. DO NOT OPEN THIS. So, of course she opened it, and whaddya know but the boxjar was filled with all the evils of the world: disease, war, famine, The Jersey Shore, and Pandora was all ZOMZ! SHUT IT! SHUT IT! And managed to close it back in time to shut it hope. Which is supposed to be why humans remain hopeful in the face of horrible things like cancer or biological weapons or The Situation.

So, yeah, this whole episode is an extended Pandora’s Box metaphor: like Pandora’s Jar, The Box is filled with nothing but evil and yet everyone who encounters it is completely unable to resist opening it, even when they are told that there’s nothing special inside. Curiosity is a powerful force, and what drove Bishop and Bell’s research for decades. However, as Bishop knows too well, sometimes there are consequences to exploration — which is why he has little interest in studying Walternate’s Bowflex of Doom. However, Pacey can not resist, which is what Walternate was counting on when he planted the device Over Here. Despite it being a deadly thingamajig, and despite knowing this, Pacey can not help but try to figure it out. He’s opened the box and now he’s got to get away from it or it won’t stop.

And this is more of a side note, but I couldn’t help but notice the katabasis in this episode. A katabasis is a descent to the underworld, a story that is common in myths worldwide. In this episode, Pacey descends into the literal underworld of the subway to retrieve The Box, and interestingly, Fauxlivia goes into the underworld after him so as to save him. What is interesting about this are the echoes to perhaps the most famous descent to the underworld: Orpheus trip to rescue his beloved Eurydice. Fortunately, Pacey’s story ends on a higher note than that one. I don’t mean to make too big a thing out of this — I think it was mostly intended to demonstrate that Fauxlivia understands that part of her job is to keep Pacey safe so that he can live long enough to destroy our world, or something. But, I wonder if it isn’t a wee bit of foreshadowing, that perhaps Fauxlivia will, over time, find herself caring for Pacey, and follow him as he travels back Over There, towards his death, his own personal underworld, and perhaps save him in some fashion.

Or maybe not.

BUT BACK TO BOXES. It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t mention my other favorite metaphoric box: Schrödinger’s box (of doom). Schrödinger’s experiment basically suggested that through quantum mechanics before a moment is observed and changed one way or another, there can be two simultaneous but different realities. Until we look in the box, the cat is both alive and dead. Both possibilities exist at once. Schrödinger’s Box is a helpful metaphor for our two universes, and how choices shape the different paths that our characters have taken. (It’s also helpful to note that from this thought experiment people extrapolated that perhaps a new universe branched off from the moment of observation, a universe in which the cat’s observable state wasn’t becomes the reality. Which is how Bishop explained the two universes.) A closed box represents choice, the observer of the box can choose to open the box, learn what is inside and possibly change their fate, or keep it closed, leave its contents a mystery and not diverge from their current path. Choice, free will, fate. The question is, by exerting his free will and tinkering with that box, is Pacey altering or fulfilling his fate?

There’s another box in this episode: the safety deposit box containing all of the Massive Dynamics shares. It’s a huge moment for Bishop, a fateful one. Running Massive Dynamics could be the opportunity he has always dreamed of; he now has unlimited resources to do, make, research, invent anything he could possibly imagine. Of course, power corrupts, and underlying this opportunity is the danger that Bishop could revert back into the person he was worried he was becoming when he had Bell remove portions of his memory. Bishop himself knew that within his soul lied potential darkness; could Massive Dynamic’s power and money unleash this?

Which brings me to my big question: was Bell leaving Bishop that safety deposit box as much of a manipulation of Bishop as Walternate’s manipulation of Pacey was by leaving The Box for him to find and tinker with? Have we really decided which side Bell was/is really on? Bell’s leaving Massive Dynamics to Bishop could be Bell’s way of making amends for cutting Bishop out of the business in the first place, or it could be Bell’s way of tempting Bishop back to the dark side. What if Bell had been working with Walternate all along? Is it possible that in “Over There,” all of the help that Bell extended to Bishop, Olivia and Pacey was actually a choreographed effort on his and Walternate’s part to swap Olivias and send Pacey back Over Here? Where, having been introduced to the Bowflex of Doom, he would be unable to resist exploring the technology that Walternate left for him to find Over Here? And then having planted the seeds of curiosity in Pacey about his role in the Bowflex of Doom and his destiny, Walternate could lure him back Over There by offering the Real Olivia? Why would Bell help Walternate? I’m not sure. But I can’t help but note that we did not see Bell die — we just assume he died sending Bishop, Pacey and Fauxlivia back Over Here. But what if he didn’t? What if his noble “sacrifice” was always planned and not nearly as deadly as it may have appeared? What if Bell actually did set Bishop, Olivia and the Kortexiphan Kidz up in Central Park, so that Walternate’s people could kill the other Kortexiphan Kidz, thus ensuring that Bell would have to use his energy to send Bishop’s group back, and “die” in the process? And remember, it was Bell that gave Olivia the grenade that enabled the switch of Olivias to take place. He’s so in on it…

Interestingly, the previous episode’s glyphs spelled out “AMBER.” Put these together, and you get “AMBER ALERT” which is a special kind of alarm issued when a child is abducted. Will this season’s glyphs always be a two-word phrase, and does this suggest that the two episodes have some sort of connection?

3 Responses

I also will not rule out a third yet unseen universe that might be the real cause of the fringe events (e.g the blight). I wouldn’t put it past Bell to have engineered a war between these two ‘verses allowing his, the third one, to prevail.

After all, we still don’t know where the observers come from. What about that strange probe that showed up in season 1? And Walternate mentions that his device is ancient tech, but not from where.

Anna Torv has done a nice job creating two distinct Olivias. In fact, they’re so distinct that I can’t help but wonder why no one has guessed the substitution. Actually, I think Peter may have already figured out he’s dealing with Fauxlivia and is keeping his cards close.

I doubt that Bell is in on it, and can almost certainly say that he didn’t fake his own death. Nimoy said that his appearance on Fringe was his last work before he retired. So unless Sheldon from “Big Bang” sucessfully clones Mr. Spoc, we’ve seen the last of him.